Indeed it does instill resentment, but as with many other big companies there's really no alternative. Someday youtube will fall second to a service that bette

Indeed it does instill resentment, but as with many other big companies there's really no alternative. Someday youtube will fall second to a service that better meets the users' needs, but I suspect that will be many years from now. I think a lot of the behaviors companies exhibit like this are related to US stock markets and the fixation on quarterly earnings per share. So much executive compensation is stock/options that it's a wiser bet for execs to optimize for the short term. Planning for 5+ years is no longer reasonable from their perspective because even with the best intentions, unplanned events can ruin everything. They might as well do whatever they can to cash in as quickly as possible. I don't see this changing for any reason. So what will happen is that every 5-10 years some upstart company will gain enough funding to replace the tired old leader, and then within 5-10 years it will become that same tired old leader.